The present invention relates to architecture for a telephone facsimile terminal, in particular for a facsimile terminal which is optionally also a photocopier, or for a telephone incorporating a facsimile terminal.
As with other apparatuses that are in increasingly common use, such terminals are tending to become more compact so as to facilitate their installation, and to become simpler to operate and to maintain. Both of these factors improve user-friendliness and consequently provide greater satisfaction for users.
Insofar as the purpose of facsimile is to enable a graphic document to be reproduced remotely in the form of another graphic document which is geometrically similar to the original, facsimile terminals are relatively bulky. Their size is at least partially a function of the generally non-negligible dimensions of the documents to be reproduced.
Their bulkiness is often a drawback for the user since the premises in which facsimile terminals are installed are conventionally general-purpose premises, such as offices and/or living accommodation, in which there is little available space, and in which users only wish to give over the smallest possible amount of space both for installing and for operating their various auxiliary apparatuses.
Similarly, users wish to reduce visits from specialized maintenance personnel to the absolute essential so as to minimize the resulting time loss in operating the apparatuses and in using the premises.
This has led to existing apparatuses being reexamined so as to attempt to reorganize them so that they are made more efficient and more reliable, in particular by simplifying them.